The "extremely reactionary" Saudi royal family that you envision does not actually exist any more. The king`s father did support Wahhabism when he founded the kingdom in the 1930s, but things have defninitely come a long way since then. Though unfortunately we still have our share of rural people who "cling to guns and religion" whose attitudes you mistakenly assume are condoned by the royal family and the rest of society.
If you`d like to see the liberal house of Saud as I know it, spend a few weeks in the summer in Marbella and the Cote D`Azur to see how truly "consevative" they are. |
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